[OT] Computer Blackmail

[Richmond Mathewson]

Last night a lawyer friend of mine phoned me in tears because all off her legal files had apparently been deleted from her PC (running WIN XP) and all she could find was a document:

INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO GET YOUR FILES BACK.txt

" . . . Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do not know the password. . .

" WE DO NOT ASK FOR MONEY! W e only want to do business with you."

and so on and so forth.

The document states that the documents are stiil on the hard drive but encrypted with a 30 symbol password - and to get the documents back you must send an e-mail to 1 of 2 possible e-mails.

This is fairly blatant blackmail.

It scared me.

Nevertheless I got all the documents back using a programs called "freeundelete.exe" - it is necessary to recover them onto an external volume, and (obviously) to have the Internet connexion disconnected. On the system I worked on there was also something called "SpySheriff" that, quite frankly, stank to high heaven. Whether "SpySheriif" is somehow connected with this blackmail or not I don't know.

The WIN XP system then needs to be "set back" a couple of days and then the documents copied back onto the PC's disks.

Sorry that this is completely OT, but I thought that XP users might be grateful for the information.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson


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"Philosophical problems are confusions arising owing to the fluidity of meanings users attach to words and phrases."
                                       Mathewson, 2006
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